Sacrifice and attention not alwas directly linked

Submarine lost at Titanic 

Therefore, five millionaires get more attention than 500 poor people  

 

Wolfgang Hansson 

 

Published 2023-06-21 18:35 

 

This is a commenting text. Analysis and positions are the writer's.  

 

Columnists  

 

Hundreds of migrants drowning in the Mediterranean Sea is a major event but unfortunately also a recurring news item. It has happened many times before.  

 

A submarine with five well-ordered men disappearing at the wreck of the Titanic is an exceptional event. 

 

That is an explanation for the difference in attention. 

 

Two tragedies occur at sea a few days apart.  

 

Around 500 migrants drown in the Mediterranean. The figure is highly uncertain. There are no passenger lists for this type of journey. The only way to find out who was on board is when relatives get in touch and wonder if their loved ones survived.  

 

We see no bodies. No faces. The dead are an anonymous group of people from Pakistan, Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt and other countries. They have all paid tens of thousands of kroner for the dream of a better life in Europe. 

 

A few days later, a specially constructed craft that had previously made a number of trips down to the wreck of the Titanic, a what was considered at the time, an unsinkable passenger ship that collided with an iceberg on its maiden voyage in 1912, disappears. A fate that has never ceased to fascinate. 

 

On board are four well-to-do, well-known men and the teenage son of one of them. 

 

They have all paid SEK 2.7 million each to be lowered 4,000 meters into the sea with the "submarine" and in the light of strong searchlights get a glimpse of the Titanic.  

 

The boat accident in the Mediterranean receives a lot of attention in the Swedish and international media, but nowhere near the interest given to the craft with the five men.  

 

It has resulted in a debate in social media about the news rating. 

  

Five men have disappeared in this submarine at the wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic. Photo: AP  

 

Hollywood movie  

 

"How much attention can five people who disappeared in a private submarine get compared to how much several hundred who disappeared in the Mediterranean get?," wonders the signature Rim and Reason, one of all who had opinions on Twitter.  

 

Despite over 40 years as a journalist, I myself can sometimes wonder about the news rating, for example when celebrities who have ended up in a rather uninteresting fight top the news sites.  

 

News rating is neither fair, predictable nor consistent. It follows its own logic. In the current case, it can at least be explained.  

 

As I pointed out in a column earlier this week, the refugee and migrant journey across the Mediterranean is an ongoing tragedy. In less than ten years, at least 20,000 people have drowned when the wretched boats provided by people smugglers capsize. 

 

Several accidents occur every month. Most don't even get a notice. The main reason why the accident outside Greece received relatively much attention was that so many people were on board. According to media logic, it is worse if many people die on a single occasion than if the same number do so over a period of several months.  

 

Five famous people disappearing at a depth of 4,000 meters is, to put it mildly, unusual. There is also a dramaturgy here in the form of there being oxygen left on board for a limited number of hours. The clock is ticking. I can already see the Hollywood movie in front of me.  

About 500 people drowned when a boat with migrants sank in the Mediterranean. Photo: AP  

 

Shooting deaths are valued differently  

 

Theoretically, the five can still be saved but everyone realizes that the chances are microscopic. If they have floated to the surface, they cannot open the hatch to the craft themselves to get air. Someone has to do it from the outside. If they are stuck at the bottom, no one will have time to save them.  

 

Only a handful of craft in the world can go down to 4,000 meters.  

 

In the case of the Greek refugee boat, there were no people who could be saved. Those who could swim were picked up immediately.  

 

The others followed the boat into the depths. It may appear inhumane and discriminatory that five rich victims receive more attention than 500 poor ones. But there is no absolute correlation between the number of victims and how much attention an event is given in the media.  

 

A shooting death in Stockholm can get more attention than an earthquake in Iran with 30,000 dead. It is about proximity to the event, access to secure information, the possibility of identification, how common the event is, what kind of pictures there are, what happens in general. A whole series of factors that together make up what we call news rating.  

 

When the gang shootings in Sweden began, each individual case received enormous attention. Today, many are passed over with relative silence. They have become so common that the news value diminishes.  

 

News rating is not a Swedish phenomenon. It is something universal where there is free media.  

 

Last night I watched super serious British BBC World. They interrupted their regular newscast to show a press conference on the missing submarine in its entirety, although no new information was presented. No other news was included.